Restoring Europe's freshwater ecosystems and wetlands is essential for protecting biodiversity, strengthening climate resilience and supporting healthy landscapes. However, securing funding for implementing and scaling up restoration measures remains a major challenge. As part of the EU-funded MERLIN project, the MERLIN Academy offers free online training to help practitioners, researchers and other stakeholders translate restoration knowledge into practice. One of its learning modules, “The economics and financing of freshwater and wetland restoration”, is led by Ecologic Institute's Gerardo Anzaldúa and Josselin Rouillard and focuses on the financial aspects of implementing such nature restoration initiatives.

From upscaling plan to best-fit financing solutions

The module begins by setting the broader context and raising a central question: "How can we pay for the costs of upscaling restoration across Europe?" It then introduces participants to the MERLIN Financial Planning Workflow, illustrating the wide-ranging aspects that can help find possible answers. These include deciding which restoration measures to upscale, assessing available skills and capacities, engaging stakeholders effectively, evaluating costs and benefits, identifying accessible funding sources and potential revenue streams, determining funding gaps, and exploring suitable financing mechanisms to bridge them. Particular attention is given to assessing the suitability of different funding and financing options, including opportunities involving the private sector. Lastly, several ready-to-use financial instruments are broken down to their core elements to help participants learn what to look out for when seeking appropriate financing solutions tailored to their restoration initiatives. The free module comprises 49 lessons, including approximately one hour of video content.

Supporting the upscaling of freshwater restoration across Europe

The module contributes to MERLIN's wider objective of enabling the large-scale restoration of freshwater ecosystems across Europe. Ecologic Institute's work within the project focuses on the economics and financing of restoration, including investment needs, funding opportunities and innovative financing solutions. By making this knowledge openly accessible, the MERLIN Academy aims to strengthen the capacity of restoration practitioners to turn ambitious restoration objectives into practical action.